Category: Bible relevancy

So little time…


Do you recognize that life itself seems short? If you are past your teenage years, you probably see every year this way. Sometimes when we are young it seems that time just won’t go very fast at all. Particularly when you are in school and you would rather be fishing or playing outside or for today’s young folks, at home playing video games. Time seems to just fly by once you have finished school or have a child and from that point on it never slows down (except in line at Walmart).

Our lifespans seem long, especially when we are under twenty, but 70 years or even 80 is not very long at all. Living beyond that is by God’s grace alone and under His supervision as well. So, what do we do with this amount of time that we are given? What should we do with it? As some country and rock singers say, “Just LIVE it!”; but do we really know how to do this?

Most of us don’t figure out HOW to LIVE until a good portion of it is gone! When we are young, we are going to school and hanging out with friends. As we get to our “adult” years, we are so busy trying to pay bills and keep food on the table that we don’t even think about what “living” means! As our children get older and move on to college or their careers, usually we begin to see things from a slower pace…usually. Then, when retirement hits us in the face, we realize that we have let all of our flowers die and we didn’t even get to smell them.

Now, we are learning about parts of our body, which hurt now, that we never even noticed before. We want to get out and travel and see the world, but our money is spent on pain medication and doctor visits. Life is too short.

That is why we all should be planning for eternity. What is that? Well, it is the other side of Life which we don’t get to see until this body dies. If you are not a Christian, eternity may not mean much to you. Some see the word “afterlife” and think it is a bunch of hogwash, others see it as a party that never ends, and still others see it as a time of reincarnation to fix things which didn’t get done in this life on the first time around.

Jesus called it paradise and my idea of that is much better than starting over or continuing to have fun into eternity. Paradise can mean different things to different people. For some it may be seeing family members that have gone before us or even to be thankful to God for the grace and forgiveness which allows us to experience His true Kingdom.

road2eternityAs human beings, we can’t imagine in our finite minds the wonders of a perfect and eternal place with God as the Ruler and King. Eternity itself is beyond our thinking because even millions of years is beyond us and one million years is just one tick on the clock of eternity. What will our eternity be like? Your eternity and mine may be two different experiences.

If you are a believer in Jesus, then at some point we may meet in eternity. If you don’t believe in God or Jesus and especially or particularly in anything contained in the Bible, then your eternity will be separate from God and all of His Kingdom. The image above shows an idea of eternity from our perspective on Earth, a road which goes into the horizon and we can’t see its end. That is actually a good way of looking at it.

We walk on it every day even though we don’t realize it. Every event in our life is a pause or a stop on this journey. The path is well-worn and wide if you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, but the path to His Paradise is a bit different. It is narrow but just as long, the big difference is that one leads to Heaven and the other leads to a place without God and a place of torment which was never meant for us.

God knows each soul in hell, but they are there by their own choosing. They are in that place because they chose to live their life without Jesus or belief in Him. It is not a place where God sends you because He hates you. God loves you and wants the best for you, but if you choose to follow your own path and your way of living instead of His, then that is where you will be. In your own version of punishment and misery, but not in Heaven.

Don’t waste the time you have to make that choice by being selfish and greedy for yourself. Pray about your salvation and what it could be and then seek Him out, and He will answer you.

Truth or Consequences


Living the life of a Christian has never been easy. From the time of Jesus’ departure, the apostles and disciples were persecuted by the local priests and by Rome and the Roman government. This has never really stopped, but the face of persecution is different today.

We sometimes hear it from friends who believe that we are judging them when we aren’t. We see the persecution from groups of radicals in other countries and in our own country of America.

Now, it seems to be coming home because if you preach or tell someone a Truth from the Bible, it is labeled as hate speech and you could be put in jail. Can anything be done to stop this? I don’t think that it will get better before Jesus comes back or at least until those who belong to Jesus are taken up to be with Him.

Yet, many Christians in other countries are being killed or put into “work camps” or into prison and much of their suffering doesn’t reach the news outlets. So, unless the Voice of the Martyrs or some other organization brings it to our attention, we don’t hear about it unless it is a bombing that kills many in a church or an open area. If it happens in a jungle or in the mountains of Nepal or North Korea, the country controls the news media, so it doesn’t get out.

Life in “developed” countries like England or Europe or America hasn’t gotten to the point of people dying for their beliefs…yet. We do hear of isolated cases of “radicalized people” killing others who don’t believe like they do, but those are few right now. How will our Christian nation react when violence against Christians gets worse? What will be done to help us? Or will our so-called “leaders” in Congress turn away and deny that it is a problem?

Christians in the past, like five or six centuries in the past, did some horrible things in the name of the Church or even in God’s name. I won’t deny that. But, making all Christians pay the price with their lives today for something which was done during the Crusades in the 12th century is ridiculous. God will punish those who have done things like killing witches who were NOT witches or killing people in the Middle East because they wouldn’t convert to Christianity. That is just as appalling as 9/11 or any of the other atrocities that are happening because of ISIS now!

Seek out the One, true God in the Bible, not one in a book of made up “holy words” by a pedophile who hated Jews and Christians. I promise, God will avenge His own and it doesn’t involve bombs or cutting their heads off!

God has provided a way for eternal life through belief in Jesus and His atoning work on the cross. Seek Him out in His Word for it is the true Word of God. Pray about what He says in it and learn from Him because in the end, all of us will bow and say that Jesus is Lord and King of all!

Our Risen Savior!!


empty_tomb11Christian holidays are not meant to bring shame to other religions, but to bring hope! This holiday is about our Savior, Who gave His life on a Roman cross so long ago. He gave it in order to be the sacrifice which was able to cover all of humanity’s sins. Not just for those who believe in Him now, but all the way back to Adam and Eve. So that salvation could be offered to those who looked for the Promised Seed of the woman, but who died in faith knowing that He would come one day!

Christmas is the celebration of His birth, even though He was born at least three months before we celebrate it because we don’t know the exact date of His birth. Anyway, He came to Earth in order to bring salvation to all people. The Jewish people were offered this gift first, but their high priests didn’t recognize Him as the Messiah. So, the gift was offered to the gentiles, everyone else in the world, who gladly accepted Him because of His offer of salvation and because none of us can be righteous enough on our own!

When you accept Jesus as your Savior, His righteousness is imputed or given to you at no cost. It is by God’s grace that we have this gift and all that we have to do is believe in Him and in His atonement for us. It is that belief, even without evidence through faith, that we have our salvation!

It is God’s gift to us, which none of us could possibly afford, that we have eternal life through Jesus and His atonement for us by His blood.

There is no other explanation of Easter’s importance other than His resurrection and His appearance to His disciples to prove that what He had told them about had come to pass! He had told them that He would be crucified and die, be buried and then rise to Life on the third day and HE did just that and more!

It is true that there are many disputes about which day He was crucified on or if there was a High Holy Day (another Sabbath) prior to the weekly Sabbath. It could’ve been, in any case, He spent three days and nights in the tomb before being resurrected, period. Jesus didn’t lie or make anything up, much of the squabbling and error has been introduced by human interpretation and superstition.

Most of us can barely keep up with a work schedule or school schedule let alone figure out which day the actual crucifixion took place on! It is Jesus’ resurrection which gives us a hope of eternity and forgiveness, so to me it doesn’t matter what day or how many days it was, just that He came out of that tomb and He is coming back one day!

Consider this…


We are living in a time of wonder and amazing technology, but it is also a dangerous time with many pathogens and bombs and all sorts of natural as well as man-made problems. What can we do about this? Is it possible for us to fix most of our problems or not?

Consider this:

timeline

 

In the past, life on Earth was segregated. We didn’t have the technology to be close, regardless of where we lived. Even if it was just a few hundred miles away, that was a week or more of travel by horse or camel or carriage. In the past 130 years we began with trains then came automobiles and airplanes and motorcycles, not exactly in that order but you get my meaning.

Most of our “problems” began to be real worldwide problems when we began to have transportation which could move us faster and farther to places that we couldn’t get to in a reasonable time before. Now, I’m not saying that advancing in technology and transportation is a bad thing but it does seem that when we began moving into each other’s back yard more easily, that is when we began to have more and more problems.

Besides, God’s Word predicted that knowledge would increase and with that knowledge our technology increased, just as the timeline shows. Yes, we are nearing the “end of the age”, and it is getting nearer all the time. How soon will the “catching away of the Bride” be, I don’t know. We may see a “new messiah” appear on the stage of the world, who will begin to “fix” things in miraculous ways so as to fool even those who believe themselves to be the elect.

In the days and weeks and months that we have left, I suggest that many of you who read this should be studying the Word of God. It is our most powerful link to the Creator and He knows when and how things will turn out for all of us. Seek His Wisdom, not the so-called wisdom of man because man’s “wisdom” is foolishness to God and God’s wisdom is foolish to mankind because without faith it can’t be understood.

Look up all of the signs that have been foretold in the Bible. See if the “fig tree” hasn’t bloomed again. This is the prophecy of the nation of Israel coming back into its own country after nearly two thousand years. Also, which nation on Earth has been scattered all over the Earth and brought back into its own country which God gave to them thousands of years ago and they are still speaking the language that their forefathers spoke and wrote down? Only the Hebrews and their nation and language have survived so long and it isn’t by accident, it is by God’s grace!

That is evidence of God and His miracle-working power because no other people and their language has ever survived so long as the Hebrews and their language to be brought back into the land which was promised to their father, Abraham over four thousand years ago!

Study time!


You know, I hated to hear those words when I was in high school. Whether we were in study hour at the library or at home and I needed to study for a test, I just didn’t like that time.

Why? Usually it was because the subject that I “needed” to study was not a favorite or I was just being a teenager and didn’t want to. I didn’t have the “luxury” of getting on a video game at home like they do today. The study time that we should be concentrating on now is of God’s Word!

If you are a Christian and you do study His Word at least once or twice a week, then you need to study a bit more. Why? Because, you need to learn more about the times in which we are living. What better way to understand prophecy than to read it and see it unfold in the news almost every day!?

While it is true that we won’t see demons or armored flying insects, but many of the things which are happening are very different from their descriptions in Ezekiel or Revelation. But, we need to be able to recognize those things which are happening today as part of prophecy. Why is that? Because we are living in what is believed to be the last Jubilee year that will occur before the appearance of the Messiah.

This doesn’t give us an exact date or day, but we should treat the signs as what they are…signs! The four Blood Moons during 2014-2015, 2017 being the last Jubilee year, a full eclipse later this year in August in America and another seven years later also visible in America. There are also double full eclipses which are going to happen in the northern part of Egypt seven years apart in 2024 and 2031.

God is sending these signs to the Earth for us to notice and interpret through prophecy in His Word. If we don’t do that or if we just ignore it, then we are setting ourselves up to be deceived by what may come next. When does the Tribulation begin? I haven’t got a clue, but it looks like it may happen in the next fifteen years or so, according to the signs. Then again, God may have another plan altogether. That is up to Him and His timing.

My main concern is the fate of those reading these words. Your eternity depends upon what you do with the knowledge of Christ and whether you accept His atonement for your sins and believe in Him or not. If it is just like any other sunny day and you decide that I will do that tomorrow, then what will you do if many of your Christian friends disappear tonight or in front of your eyes?

What then? This is a blog written by a preacher, but I would classify that instance as an “oh shit!” moment! If you were at a Bible study or at a gathering somewhere and all of a sudden, there were piles of clothes and watches and shoes but most of your friends who were Christians just vanished, what would you feel? Anger, fear, regret…probably all of these and knowing that many people all over the world feel just as you do right now!

Make sure of where your heart is concerning your relationship with Jesus, BEFORE this happens! I don’t mean that you can’t become a Christian afterwards, but it will become far more dangerous, but as long as you belong to Him, your eternity is sealed. Amen.

The name “Lord” appears how many times?


The word or name “Lord” appears far more in the Bible than many would believe. According to some counts, it is in the Old Testament (KJV) 7234 times. There are other interesting number counts on this page and it depends upon which translation that you use regarding how many times a specific word is mentioned, but it is an interesting page.

Why did I bring this up today? Because, many people seem to wonder about some words in the Bible and how many of them there are. Why does that make a difference? It may not, really, but for some people it may make a bit of a difference. God’s Word does say many things and it is good to know what and why it is said. The only reason that you would need to know this is because you won’t be fooled into believing something which is not in there if you have read it enough to know what is found in it and what is not!

God inspired the writers to write His Word down not because He couldn’t remember, but because we can’t always remember the exact words which He said to us about certain things and why. Which is another reason why each of us needs to read it and study it. Taking a verse or two out of context renders them useless because some of Psalms and Proverbs has no meaning unless you read the whole chapter and verse. Taking any verse on its own renders it unable to be understood in its entirety because the paragraph before and after may lead you to a different understanding of it than just the verse itself.

The shortest verse in the Bible which was written about a sad day in Jesus’ ministry, even though He had told His disciples about what was happening, is: “Jesus wept.” Unless you read the before and after verses, that small verse doesn’t mean much except that it shows how Jesus felt emotions just as deeply as the rest of us. He wept because his friend had died, not because He couldn’t save Him from death but because He had to bring him back from Paradise to live again. It was necessary to do so for the people to see that He had the power to do it even after four days. Not for bragging rights, but to show Who He was and Who He is!

Give your heart to Him, seek Him in the Word and learn more about Him and in that way, one chapter or two every day, you will get to know our Creator and Lord better than you ever have before.

What will you do?


Jesus_Loves_UWhat will you do on the day that Jesus comes back? What about the day that the trumpet sounds and many people in the world vanish? Will you be one of those who vanish or will you be left here wondering what happened?

What will you do? How will you feel about being left behind?

Life on Earth is going to get hard and very dangerous for anyone who decides to become a follower of Jesus. Especially after the “new” messiah shows up.

The time to decide to follow Jesus and ask Him into your life is today! There is more persecution and problems for Christians today than it has ever been, and the time is running out. Now, I don’t know when He will come for the church and I am not going to speculate, but you can see the prophecies coming true today. There are more wars, small though they may be they are still wars and many of them are because of religion and religious reasons.

Although, the wars which we hear about are not because of Christian beliefs. The conflicts which we hear about in the news are from parts of the religious spectrum which are usually against Christians entirely. They are persecuted, killed and some are put into prisons. Some are burned alive, some see their children killed because of their faith, but they don’t give up their faith.

God doesn’t cause these problems in their lives, the world just can’t handle the Truth of His Word and His offer of Grace and mercy. Therefore the world punishes our brothers and sisters all over the world, regardless of the country they live in. We may not hear about their suffering because it isn’t in the Middle East or maybe it isn’t part of someone’s agenda right now, but that doesn’t mean that their suffering is any less. Those Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa are being burned out of their homes and many of them have lost their families because of the hatred that others in their country have for “Jesus followers”.

We don’t hear about it because it isn’t sensational news, it won’t bring in the ratings, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.

Is there anything that we can do to help them? We can pray if we can’t do anything else! Pray for God to protect them or to help them to escape their circumstances. If you can give money to a reputable organization which can help, then by all means do so! The things which are happening today are the “beginnings of sorrows“. Jesus said that we should be watching for these signs and be watching for His coming and be ready for it.

When the believers are taken up one day, the world will wonder what happened? They will be searching for answers and of those that are still here, only the ones who have read God’s Word and heard it preached but chose not to believe will be the ones who have the answer. But, most of the world will not listen at that point. Many theories will be put forth on the news for the violence and the disappearances and the many deaths which happen when a pilot or a bus driver vanishes.

This time is coming. Seek Jesus and His Truth in God’s Word! Pray that you are among those who vanish because afterwards the world will blame Christians and God’s Word for all of the hate and the deaths and the broken families who are left. The hatred toward those who believe after this will be very violent. Look into the Bible for your Savior now, because tomorrow or next month or next year may be too late.

What can we do?


There are many paths to enlightenment in the world today, philosophically speaking, therefore, which one is the correct path for all concerned? Few I’m afraid….actually there is only one.

Philosophy and enlightenment are pursuits which give us knowledge but that will not enable you to be a part of God’s Kingdom. Even knowledge of the Bible and all that it contains will not get you into Heaven without belief and faith in Jesus! Reading and studying the Bible until you know it by heart will do nothing for you spiritually unless the Holy Spirit opens your mind and heart so that you can see Who your Savior truly is and accept Him.

Knowledge and degrees and meditation are wonderful for their own purposes, but the experience of God is found through faith and belief in Jesus. If you don’t have that, then the Bible is just a book of historical figures and facts written by men. God did not give us His Word, the Bible, to be just a book. It is the revelation of Himself and His Son from beginning to end and it doesn’t matter if everyone doesn’t see it that way!

The Sun shines whether you have any faith or belief in it or not. Gravity still works whether you believe it exists or not. God and His promise through Jesus the Christ will accomplish everything written down by His apostles and prophets because He is God, whether you believe in Him and His Son or not.

Life, love, greed, hatred, envy and fear all exist as part of our emotional lives in one way or  another. We cannot change this because we can’t change the character of the entire world and every person in it. All of this boils down to one Truth and that is: Jesus came and died on a cross for your sins and your father’s sins and your friend’s sins. He paid the price for all of them, each and every person past, present and future. Whether we believe it or not doesn’t change the fact that it happened and it won’t change anything about the future which was foretold in the book of Revelation.

Seek Him by believing in Him. Read His Word and ask Him to show you the wisdom that you need to have so that your eyes will see Him as He is. The Savior that you need for healing, strength, and hope for eternity, because Jesus is the Savior that we all have been searching for.

We have many proofs


Archaeology has proven much, if not all, of the Bible’s historical places and people to have existed, so why don’t more people believe the Word of God? Is it because it hurts our feelings? Could it be because of the Truth which it carries that points out our shortcomings?

I believe it is a combination of those. Why? Because, lets face it, truth hurts! Especially when it is from our Creator and we know He can’t lie to us! That is why the Bible and Christianity are hated so much in our world today. Nobody wants to hear a Truth which can’t be ignored or disproven since it comes from God.

The Bible talks about Jesus from the Promise in Genesis of the Seed of a woman all the way to the birth of Jesus and His message all through the New Testament. God knew from the beginning that we would need a Savior, which is why He came to pay the penalty for our sins, all of the world’s sins!

Those who choose not to believe those proofs in this world will see Him in fear when He comes again. Some will go to the grave and yet they will be judged by Him after their death, if they have chosen not to believe in Him. God loves all people on the Earth, but He will not force anyone to follow or believe in Him or His Son, Jesus. Love cannot be forced, neither can belief. Love is given willfully and belief comes from God’s Holy Spirit through faith in Him that gives it.

Seek Him out that you might come to know your Creator and Lord, now while it is still day and while you yet live. Because, in death you give up the right and the ability to accept and believe in Him Who can save your soul. Your fate is sealed once you die, so make sure of your belief beforehand or the proof will come to your eyes too late.

God’s Promises


This is the day that the Lord has made for you and for me. What will you do with it? Do you wake up with an attitude of “Oh no, not another day!” or do you thank God for waking you up so you can have another day?

This is the life that we are given, daily, and we should be walking with Jesus but are you walking with Him or maybe someone else?

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
God promises many things in the Bible but most of us either don’t understand that we are entitled to those promises or we haven’t read the Bible enough to know what those promises are! God loves each and every person on the Earth, which is why He sent His Son, Jesus, to be the sacrifice which could pay the debt which everyone owes. Why didn’t I put that in past tense? Because we are all still committing sins regardless of our status as Christians or not, the only difference is that those who have given their heart to Jesus know they are forgiven.
They will be convicted of that sin, no matter what they do and they will ask forgiveness for it. Anyone who is not a Christian will not because until the Holy Spirit convicts you enough that you seek Him out, or you won’t do it at all. Truly, God does love you more deeply that you know or even realize but unless you have felt the touch of the Holy Spirit and become convicted of your sinful nature, you will not seek Him.
God intended for mankind to have an intimate relationship with Him and, before they ate from the forbidden tree, that is what He had. What happened? Adam and Eve did not obey God. It wasn’t the fruit or the tree that caused the sin of disobedience, it was the disobedience which caused the rift between man and God. The curse which was placed on mankind and all of creation was because of his disobedience and we still haven’t learned from it yet…because it is still going on!
People go against the rules, the Ten Commandments, all of the time. Murder, rape, stealing, incest, disregarding parents and grandparents, all of this and more happens every day. The only cure for our world’s problems is obeying God, the True God of the Bible! Not the one in the Quran or any other “book”, but the One Who created everything and everyone. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the One that we need to be listening to and following!
Seek Him out in His Word because His Spirit prompted and inspired the writers to write down His Words. The Bible is not made up by man because the prophecies that it contains would not have come true if that were so! The birth of Jesus was foretold down to Him being born of a virgin and in what town He would be born in. This was written at least six hundred years or more prior to His birth!
The same goes for the Psalm which David wrote almost one thousand years prior to His death by crucifixion. A type of punishment which wasn’t even being used at the time that David wrote Psalm 22, but it describes it perfectly even to the soldiers gambling for His garments. Give the Word of God a chance to change your life for the better and you will never be the same again!